Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-12-Speech-3-047"
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"en.20051012.12.3-047"2
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".
Mr President, barely 15 kilometres south of my Gibraltar constituency, thousands of sub-Saharan migrants are massed near the border of Fortress Europe. Many are hungry and weak after their journey through the deserts and mountains of Africa. They struggle against disease, violence and the exploitation of criminal gangs. Now we learn that they are dying at the fences which separate poverty from prosperity, or that they are left in the desert without food and water. Many of us remember such scenes from Bible study. The difference is that this Exodus will not be solved by divine intervention – only by political action.
Africa is Europe’s backyard: our near neighbourhood. We cannot fence ourselves off from it, closing our doors and our eyes to its social and economic problems. In the words of the poet Thomas Gray, we must not ‘shut the gates of mercy on mankind’.
The flood tide of migrants along our southern borders is upsetting our cosy calculation that inequality can be sustained without cost. With developing countries, remember this: the hungry vote with their feet. So either we accept their produce and allow their economies to prosper or we accept their migrants.
Our futures are interdependent. Sustainable economic, social and political development in Africa is a common concern, essential to Europe’s future. We recognised this in 1995, when the Barcelona Process enshrined multilateral relations across the Mediterranean as the new strategic reality. Ten years on, Spain is negotiating a plan with Morocco to tackle immigration and promote cooperation with the countries of origin.
Partnership is certainly the way forward. However, until Morocco’s border guards stop shooting unarmed refugees; until Morocco stops dumping them near its borders unable to fend for themselves, the European Union cannot, and should not, offer support for these proposals. Most of those affected today are not Moroccan nationals: they are third-country nationals who entered the Union via Morocco and who deserve the protection of our laws.
Up to now, plans for a European consensus on migration policy have been buried at the bottom of the political inbox. Why? Member States cannot agree on any one approach the European Union suggests. But that does not stop them demanding European action when they face specific immigration problems of their own.
The problems facing Melilla and Ceuta are not just Spain’s problem: they are Europe’s problem. The challenge in Lampedusa is also Europe’s problem, however much Italy seeks to hide it from visiting MEPs. No wonder the southern countries of the Barcelona Process have run out of patience.
We need to think bigger and to recognise, as Kofi Annan said, that ‘migrations are necessary’. We need a consensus on economic policy. We need Doha and Hong Kong to bring results to help Africa.
When Commissioner Louis Michel outlines his strategy for Africa later today, I hope the Member States will heed his message that it is time for a European consensus on development and immigration that respects the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law."@en1
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